Secret service should get more powers to tap internet links: minister

The military secret service MIVD should be given greater powers to collect information using internet taps, defence minister Hans Hillen told parliament on Wednesday, the NRC reports.

If their powers were expanded, officials would no longer break the law while carrying out investigations using cable and internet taps, the minister said during a debate.
Technology is moving quickly, making changes in the law inevitable, the minister said. ‘We are operating on the edge of the law and sometimes we cross that divide,’ Hillen said. ‘The law needs to be adapted.’
The security service’s supervisory group CTIVD has also called for increasing the options for internet tapping.Phone taps
Last week, a justice ministry report showed Dutch police remain far more likely than their colleagues in neighbouring countries to tap crime suspects’ telephones.
Some 22,000 telephone taps are placed a year, or one in 1,000 phone connections, researchers at the justice ministry’s WODC institute said.